"O ye who believe! Be steadfast witnesses for Allah in equity, and let not hatred of any people seduce you that ye deal not justly. Deal justly, that is nearer to your duty. Observe your duty to Allah. Lo! Allah is Informed of what ye do." [Al-maeda ,8]

ISLAMABAD – The big guns of Pakistan got their over Rs 193.403 billion bank loans written off on the decisions taken by the financial teams of various governments from 1997 to 2009.
This shocking revelation was made in a report of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) submitted before the Supreme Court. The report mentioned the names of those individuals and organisations who had got billion of rupees waived off causing a massive loss to the public exchequer and facilitating the privileged of the previous governments.
According to the list consisting bank-wise summary of written-off loans of 37 banks, that is also available with TheNation, the loans of around 19,711 individuals were written off within the period of last 12 years.
A three-member bench of SCP headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry heard a suo moto case of Rs 54 billion written off loans case that has been pending in the apex court since November 2007.
“Over Rs 300 billion have been waived off by influential persons in the state as the arguments were being presented by the lawyers before the apex court,” the bench observed.
The SC started proceedings of the case on the request of a few citizens for public interest here on Tuesday. Chief Justice in his remarks said, “How will the looted money be recovered from the big guns of the country? Through which device can the public wealth be returned from the babus?” he questioned.
Criticising the government on failure of recovery from defaulters, he said the list of loans must be prepared at provincial levels so that cases of waiving off the loans in each province could be listed. He said court is ready to take on any resistance.
The court has directed the Governor SBP to sort out recovery mechanism of the loans waived off. It directed to hold conference with the presidents of other 37 banks to inquire about the loans written off during 1971 till date.
Dr Ishratul Hussain would be summoned to guide the court while taking u